Kill Your Completion X

[SixyLove]

Update 005

Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness

Playtime: 25 hours

Trophies Earned: 7/36 21%

 

For my third playthrough, I tried to get the worst outcome possible for every situation, refused to take mental supplements and sabotaged all my therapy sessions. I experienced some interesting results because of my actions but my actions landed me in prison or dead; Without earning a single trophy because of my actions. I did get my nails painted (in game) and earned a trophy for it.

I feel so low energy when I play this game right now. I'm unsure if I'll play another playthrough before I write my review. 

[German_Atheist]

@voodoo_eyes

 

I made yet some more changes to my list. My motivation is pretty low right now so I changed my list to the following games:

 

• Bioshock (PS4)
• Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)
• Heavy Rain (PS4)
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (PS3)
• Wolfenstein: The New Order (PS4)

[Psy-Tychist]

 

Inside.

 

Playtime: 3 hours.

Played: 49/70 Chapters.

Trophies: 3/14 - 15%

Completion: 60.86% - ? 0.03%

Feeling: Unnerved and Intrigued.

 

About 6 years ago, I played the first game made by PlayDead, Limbo. This game was minimalist in both colour, music and story. What it did best was provide you with an interesting narrative, challenging but clever physics puzzles and an incredible feeling of loneliness and unease.

For those that don't know, you play as a nameless, voiceless boy-shaped shadow travelling through an unknown world of varying backgrounds and environmental puzzles. You gain a feeling that the world itself just doesn't want you around and that everything is not quite the way it should be.

The ending for the game is also very ambiguous but poignant of the games name. In short, the game made an impact on me which was quite profound for a game which in total you can finish in 3 hours.

 

After seeing the gameplay a couple of years ago, I was intrigued by it and sought to purchase it. It was much more expensive than Limbo was on the store which caused me to wait for a sale. And now we jump in to see what it's all about.

 

You start like Limbo, a small boy running to the right, with no other objective. So far so much the same. The main difference is that the game design is washed out but highly atmospheric. Much more in line with real-life designs of animals and buildings and locales rather than Limbos vague aesthetic. 

Starting in a forest, you run through, escaping from men, cars, dogs eventually finding an abandoned farm with pigs and small chicks. The locales change as you move forward, always slightly different but always eerie, unsettling and with something hostile on the horizon. I've reached an area which seems like a dilapidated warehouse mixed with a submarine after passing through some rather interesting water puzzles and tense swimming escapes from a strange mermaid/kelpie hybrid. Definitely will be finishing this game after (maybe during) KYC.

 

Trophy-wise, they are all tied to collectible spheres you find after solving a puzzle differently or finding a hidden path. I don't know if this changes anything in the end of the game, but will find out after the fact.

 

What makes this game so fun and interesting is how solid everything works and gives you a sense of the vibrancy of how real it should feel however surreal the setting is. The sounds really feel chunky, water sounds are echoey when above and muffled when below. The weight of the interactable items is tangible and immersive. The puzzles are not too difficult at all and can be blown through in a first attempt but even repeating them when you fail doesn't feel unfair. The narrative, however vague, conveys all the feelings you should be feeling while playing in this broken, mildly dystopian looking world.

 

In summary, this game is a polished quick game you can knock out in an afternoon and it will still be one you will think about after that major blockbuster fades from memory. Rated: .

 

If you like this, try these: Journey, Brothers: Tale of Two Sons, Child of Light, Abzu.

 

Next Game: Tacoma

[Kevvik]

Ok, early update as I think this is going to be a bit here, bit there game...

 

Game #2: The Bridge

 

Initial Impressions

Time played: 2 hrs

 

The Bridge is a puzzle game, 2.5D in appearance but 2D in application in that there is a depth to the environments but you can't actively alter the depth you function at. Story is pretty sparse so far, you start outside sleeping under a tree and go into your house to solve environmental puzzles accessed through different hallways.

 

You can walk around in the puzzle rooms but that will only get you so far. You can also alter the environment, rotating it by tilting the Vita but I turned that option off so that you rotate the environment with the shoulder buttons. I found I had better control that way.  The idea for each puzzle is to navigate through the environment to the door, a simple idea that gets progressively more complex. Some levels you need to get a key to unlock the door, others have a large grinning ball which instantly kills you if you make contact with it. Another obstacle is a vortex which sucks you in either temporarily or permanently. The circle button functions to rewind time so that you can try different strategies or you can reset the level if you want to start from the beginning.

 

The trophies range for the completion of chapters (hallways) to meeting certain criteria on specific levels (for example, complete level X without tilting the environment or not walking). It is becoming progressively more challenging as you move on.  The art style is great, evoking Escher and his geometrically abnormal environments. The controls so far are tight which is good as sometimes your timing needs to be quite tight to bypass an obstacle.

 

I'm really enjoying this (I like my puzzle games) but it's not a game I would feel right in just hammering through on a gaming binge so I'm spreading out my enjoyment. Load times for the levels are about 10-15 seconds so not overly long. At least you aren't staring at a black screen during that time like with Cosmic Star Heroine.

 

If I have a gripe about the game, it's that the mechanics beyond moving aren't explained so there is a bit or trial and error as you work out how new obstacles work.  I don't need a tutorial level for each but I could do with a little explanation of each new device works as they are presented.

 

I'll be going through this slowly to savour it like I do with most puzzlers.

 

Trophies earned: 5/20, 23% for B rank

Score so far: 8/10

 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2019 by Kevvik

[me_is_caveman]

I have so many 100% completed games on my record that starting up 5 - 10 new games would barely make a dent in my completion rate.

[German_Atheist]

33 minutes ago, me_is_caveman said:

I have so many 100% completed games on my record that starting up 5 - 10 new games would barely make a dent in my completion rate.

Why do you bother posting in this thread then? 

[DamagingRob]

2 hours ago, me_is_caveman said:

I have so many 100% completed games on my record that starting up 5 - 10 new games would barely make a dent in my completion rate.

I'm sure many of us regulars can say that, too, by now. I think most of us just enjoy reading the reviews, and talking about the games we're playing. 

 

[Arctic Cress]

Game #1 - Mary Skelter: Nightmares

Time played: 3.5 hours

Trophies: 10/34 (14% - D)

 

Another day, another Vita anime dungeon crawler. So far, I've played Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library & The Monster Seal, Demon Gaze, MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death, and many others throughout the years.

 

This story takes place in a dungeon area known only as the Jail, where our main characters do their exploring. It's populated by monsters known as Marchens and more dangerous ones known as Nightmares, which serve as the bosses of the game. Your party consists of Jack, a somewhat useless kid, as well as a number of heroines from various fairy tales, including Alice, Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty. And that's only the first few heroines encountered. The story is basically that the main characters are trying to escape from the Jail by defeating the Nightmares and ascending to the top of a tower found in the area. Pretty basic and nothing special.

 

The dungeon crawling is pretty basic, with a few interesting mechanics. Each heroine has a field ability they can use outside of battle, including bombs and arrows which can be used to solve certain puzzles found in dungeons. The dungeons also have three gauges that fill up as you finish battles or find items within the dungeon, which can give various bonuses. One of these bonuses expands the dungeon area, which probably means eventually I will have to do this on every level to explore everything. Not looking forward to doing that.

 

The battle system is much more interesting overall. It's a basic turn-based system, but there's a few things unique to this game that sets it apart from others. The heroines have a Blood Splatter gauge that fills up during battle by hitting weaknesses, doing overkill damage, or killing multiple enemies at a time. This allows the characters to enter Massacre mode, which increases their stats, heals them every turn, and allows them to use a special skill that they can only use in this mode. However, if they've taken too much damage or their allies have been defeated in battle, they will instead enter Blood Skelter mode instead of Massacre mode, and while it does still increase stats a lot, they become berserk and attack both allies and enemies. Jack also participates in battle, and his main function is to keep the heroines out of Blood Skelter mode by reducing their corruption as their gauge fills. He can also guard one heroine for the duration of their turn, but can only take one hit and be stunned for two turns afterwards if he is hit. His most useful contribution is he can use items in battle, which was a very useful function that kept the party alive when I was facing the first boss. The gauges from the dungeon also appear in battle, and if they fill up while in battle they give different bonuses than the ones on the field, such as increasing the rarity of items dropped.

 

For other stat upgrades, each heroine has a job system that gives them access to different skills. They each gain 1 CP upon level-up which is used on various skills to be used in battle. Given the amounts of damage being thrown around, I opted for many of the healing skills to start off, which was invaluable in the first boss battle. Equipment is found in treasure chests, monster drops and by a random merchant who appears in the dungeons, and these equips can be upgraded by using blood collected at the end of battles. There's a bunch of other job mechanics available in the laboratory, but as of now I have not made any use of those.

 

Other than that, there's not much else to say about the game. So far, I'm enjoying it much more than either Demon Gaze or MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death, both of which were very basic and boring dungeon crawlers. This game is actually pretty similar to Dungeon Travelers 2, but that game edges it out slightly because its job system is much more fun to tinker around in. However, I think I'll be going back to this one instead of Demon Gaze or MeiQ after the event concludes.

 

Starting completion %: 71.51%

Current completion %: 71.32%

Difference: -0.19%

 

I did get a lot of trophies in this game, but no silvers or golds made the completion plunge quite a bit for the first game added. Also helping is yet another DLC pack coming in for Gems of War, which I've pretty much just given up on ever finishing at this point. Still playing Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age and made it a few hours into the post-game story content, so the PS4 remains off limits and I'll head into either one of the PS3 games or the last Vita game for next time.

[RuneEyesDragon]

Had to run over both my first and second session for the second game together because I had to go celebrate America's national holiday with my family and my growing niece. She's three months old now. 

 

Game #2 - July 4-6

 

Had to celebrate Independence Day with a story about demons gaining independence from Void Dark. It's basically a story about demons fighting against a powerful demon overlord called Void Dark who steals something called Overloads, which are special powers that Overlords(the elite rules of diabolic planets called Netherworlds) gain access to. It's sort of like Arctic Cress's game, Mary Skelter: Nightmares but there is no "Blood Skelter" mode and you trigger Revenge Mode by getting hit or losing allies. My idol on this game, Green Z-Saber, abuses Revenge Mode by sending out weak units to die. ? When an Overlord hits Revenge Mode, they can use a special ability called an Overload that does either a special attack on enemies (Seraphina's Overload charms male enemies) or makes them stronger (Red Magnus becomes a giant and his stats get really high, making him a beast in battle - of course, later on there is a special means of having every unit you deploy be a giant).

 

Disgaea 5 is the descendant of Disgaea 1(which Disgaea 1 Complete remakes) so it has the same turn-based strategy elements of Disgaea 1 but it adds a TON of features and quality of life changes that make the platinum much easier to get.

 

Anyways, I got the first two story trophies and a couple of easy miscellaneous trophies, nothing to see her.

 

Trophies Earned: 

1 hour ago, Arctic Cress said:

Another day, another Vita anime dungeon crawler. So far, I've played Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library & The Monster Seal, Demon Gaze, MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death, and many others throughout the years.

I'm surprised you haven't platinumed Criminal Girls 1 and 2 yet, since it's the same thing only with more R-rated material.

Edited July 5, 2019 by RuneEyesDragon

[SixyLove]

Review

Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness (Vita)

Playtime: 26 hours 

Trophies: 7/36 21%

 

Why this game?

I originally was planning to play Nekopara Vol.1 in this slot but decided against it after doing a little research and coming to the conclusion it was too short and easy. I went through my game library to find another visual novel game to play on Vita. I picked Psycho-Pass because I was a little familiar with the anime and it was the first game I stumbled upon that met my criteria. I'm the type of person that adds every PS Plus game to their library, Psycho-Pass was a PS Plus a few years back and that is why I "own" this game.

 

Story

Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness takes place in a world similar to ours but it's the year 2112. Between the years 2019-2112 economics failed and there were a lot of wars going on that Japan wanted nothing to do with them, so Japan became 100% self sufficient by powering everything with methane and inventing Hyper-Oats (Hyper-Oats are a miracle food that is easy to produce, has great nutritional value and can made to resemble and taste like any food).

 

Japan also decided to abolish the old social class system and invent the Sibyl System. The Sibyl System monitors a persons mental state and their skills to pick the career path that is best suited to them. Everyone also has a Psycho-Pass, it's a reading that displays a persons mental state with a color. I don't know what the difference between colors mean but a light shade means your mental heath is good and a dark shade means it's bad. Having a dark shade is a very big problem since you will be forced to spend your life in isolation or if it's extremely bad, the upper half of your body will be instantly vaporized by a energy weapon. Keep taking your mental supplements and get some therapy before that happens.

 

In the game, you can pick between two characters to play as. The story is 90% the same between the two characters in my experience. The character you don't pick is still part of the story.

Nadeshiko Kugatachi (female): The new inspector. Has amnesia and is emotionless.

Takuma Tsurugi (male): When to Toyko to search for his missing girlfriend who dispersed under mysterious circumstances. He got arrested for having a bad Psycho-Pass, spent some time in comfy isolation jail, got the offer to become an enforcer instead of spending life in isolation prison. He is also a outgoing person but tends to make everything about himself.

Both of the characters join the CID Division 1, a team of Inspectors and Enforcers that investigate and hunt down criminals. Enforcers are latent criminals (latent criminals are people with a bad Psycho-Pass and are likely to commit crime but haven't actually done anything bad yet) that are selected based on their talents to hunt down other criminals. Enforcers are expected to do the majority of the leg work and fighting. Inspectors are mostly just there to make sure the Enforces don't try to escape but they do help. All the other members from the team are recognizable from the anime and they do things.

Akane Tsunemori (Female, Inspector): She was the main protagonist of the anime. She doesn't really do anything and always looked very depressed to me even though she wasn't.

Nobuchika Ginoza (Male, Inspector): Basically the boss of the division. Is as straight edge as they come and just bosses everyone around. 

Shion Karanomori (Female, Analysis Department): She shows up so frequently that she is a member of Division 1. She dresses like she moonlights and has a lot of sexual innuendos in her dialogue.

Shinya Kogami (Male, Enforcer): He never did anything that stood out in my playtime. He doesn't know how to properly wear a suit.

Masaoka Tomomi (Male, Enforcer): The sexy older gentleman that has a million "Back in my day" stories.

Shusei Kagari (Male, Enforcer): The funny one.

Yayoi Kunizuka (Female, Enforcer): Most useless.

 

The game's plot is mostly about a Nadeshiko and Takuma solve a bunch of tangentially related cases where a AI is just trying make people people happy but is really bad at it and just makes everything worse. I actually enjoyed the story a lot during my first playthrough. I thought the ending I got was a little weak and rushed. I feel like I enjoyed the worlds setting more then the actual plot that was going on.

 

Visuals and Sound

The game looks good. The game is a visual novel so you will be looking at 2D drawing of 1-2 characters talking over a background 90% of the time. The characters will change poses and display different emotions between lines sometimes. They also blink at the rate a normal human would. You occasionally get well drawn stills that the characters will talk over.

 

All the voice acting is in Japanese, you will have to read all the text at the bottom (it's in English) if you don't speak Japanese. There are no options to change the voice and text language. The game doesn't have a anime style opening or anything; I was expecting it from this kind of game. The music in the game is good. I wouldn't listen to it in my own time but I enjoyed hearing it.

 

Gameplay

You press X to display the next box of dialogue. There is a auto feature that will do that task for you; you can even adjust the speed in the options menu. There is also a skip feature that can skip all the dialogue very fast. The game will occasionally let you make dissensions. You also have a Psycho-Pass meter that will be effected by your decisions and the state of it will influence events in the story. It's a very neat mechanic that I don't fully understand yet.

 

There is also a bonus game in the extra's menu. It's just 2048 with chibi Psycho-Pass characters on the tiles. You can skip this paragraph if you already know what 2048 is. 2048 is a puzzle game played on a 4x4 grid. You press a direction on the D-Pad or Analog stick and every tile on the board will shift in that direction. All tiles have a number value, your goal is to shift tiles of the same value into each other, the tiles will combined and make a new tile that' is both tiles added together. Every direction you press has a 2 or 4 tile spawn opposite of the direction pressed. You lose if the board gets filled with tiles and you are no longer able to move any tiles.

 

The Psycho-Pass version has a mode with actual stages. The goal of each stage is combined tiles to create the tile shown in the upper left corner. Some stages also contain uncombined-able tiles and/or steel tiles that don't move. The bonus game is technically optional but you earn points that unlock concept art and bonus voices. Playing the mode with stages will give a lot of bonus points for each stage cleared and the bonus gets bigger every 9 stages.

 

Trophy Thoughts

This is a visual novel game, any challenge can be eliminated with the use of a guide. The game is very stingy with giving you trophies and only gives them out for getting "true endings" or viewing events related to certain team members. You are required to play both characters to earn all the trophies. The puzzle game also needs to played but you;re not required to beat every stage; you only need to earn enough points to unlock all the bonus voices and concept art. 

 

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed my time with the game. I feel like I've barely seen what it has to offer. I haven't felt to energized to play this one very much. I'm just not in the mood for a visual novel right now. I will platinum the game in the future and I may review it again after.

 

For anybody wondering, have only seen two episodes of the anime and that was over 3 years ago. I'm also sorry if I didn't explain some aspects correctly or over simplified things a little too much.  

The next game on the list is Gravity Rush: Remastered. I have high hopes for this one. I remember playing the demo for the Vita version... I don't remember how I felt about the game back then.

[SixyLove]

Update 006

Gravity Rush Remastered

Playtime: 6 hours

Trophies Earned: 18/64 20%

 

Gravity Rush is a very fun game. The movement system is very fun and satisfing to use on it's own; if the entire game was just movement, I would still be satisfied. I really enjoyed playing the race challenges. The combat so far has been really simple and easy for me but it's very fun. I'm enjoying the story so far and some of the lines have made me laugh.

 

I haven't had this much fun with a platformer since I played A Hat in Time. I'm getting all teary eyed and nostalgic now.

[Kevvik]

Another day 3 where I'm likely going to be too busy to get any gaming in so I'll close this one out now.

 

Game #2: The Bridge

 

Day 3 Impressions

Time played: ~6.5 hrs

 

Im having a lot of fun with this, as frustrating as it can be at times. The frustration comes from difficulty, not poor controls. Juggling the perspective issues with the obstacles/"enemies" takes a bit of trial and error. I find tracking backwards from the objective and trying to plan things out to be the best method and then correcting when things don't quite work right.  

 

A couple of new things that the game has introduced. The veil, a curtained off area which allows you to alter the gravity that some objects are affected by without affecting your own. Inversion panels which flip both your gravity and your hue (light/dark) with keys/doors only accessible by certain hues.  I'm now into a mirrored version of the world which adds a few more complications. Obstacles that weren't present in the original versions and which appear to be affected by a gravity inverted (up/down) and mirrored (left/right) of your own.  This makes things much more challenging.  I've been getting the level specific trophies as I go as several I just got during the course of initially completing the level, a few that I backtracked and fine tuned my procedures to accomplish.

 

Overall, for anyone who likes challenging puzzles (a la the harder levels of Echochrome), this is a game you shouldn't miss. If you don't, you are likely to be quite frustrated by it. The challenges never feel cheap (though on initially viewing a level, they might seem that way) and there is a genuine sense of satisfaction which grows as you progress.

 

Trophies earned: 14/20, 66% for A rank

Score so far: 9/10

Completion Rate: 84.32% (-0.03% for the game, +0.04% for the event)

 

Next up: my first foray into the Atelier series...Game #3: Atelier Rorona Plus: The Alchemist of Arland

 

Edited July 6, 2019 by Kevvik

[PerryToxteth]

KYCX

Game No. 1

 

 

Playing Time: 5 hours

Trophies Earned: 7/39 (17% A rating)

 

Final Thoughts: Well, considering my one-dimensional game for pick Game No. 2, I might have a bit more to add about this game with additional playing time, but here's my take after four days.

 

The Good: This is a unique strategy game, that fully immerses itself into the turbulent times of the French Revolution. With its static gameplay and text-heavy screens, it will only cater to a few gamers. As stated before, you are a judge during the French Revolution. You hear cases in your courtroom and determine the verdict on the questions you conjure up. If you don't link pieces of evidence accurately with your questions, you won't get a full picture of the case.

  So far, I've heard around 20+ cases and have acquitted 7, imprisoned 4, and guillotined 11. What?!? You ruthless tyrant, Perry! Well, as the Revolution heats up, you need to weigh your verdicts on how various factions react to your decisions, and how they might help you politically. If the crowd is clamoring, "Off with their head!" and you ignore them too many times, you pay the consequences (i.e. Game Over). I've reached a point where sending the accused to prison isn't even an option: it's acquittal or death.  

  The game starts out rather one-dimensional, with case after case, but gets going after an hour or so with new gameplay screens. There's a map of Paris, where you move pieces around to control various neighborhoods; as well as a family aspect (appease various family members for +/- reputation points) and something I will call an Intrigue Tree. To take down big opponents, you will need to perform multi-step manuevers in the background to set them up to fail. Usually, it's swaying an influential figure by in a conversation. You will get 3 or 4 questions to ask in the conversation and you can choose which approach to take: carelessness, humility, aggression or manipulation. Some people need their egos stroked. Others need to be threatened. You need to figure out what power you hold and how to sway the conversation. Do it right and gain an ally. Do it wrong and back yourself into a corner. 

  I have successfully taken down one opponent (or rather, his wife. She wore the pants.) and am currently working on another.  All the big players in the Revolution are here - Robespierre, Georges Danton, Jean-Paul Marat - but some minor ones are here as well. This is definitely a vehicle for getting the game player into the Revolution; it is more history-heavy than gaming-heavy. The game does a great job of showing how the Revolution started out noble, but devolved into a slaughter-fest. So many decisions aren't between right and wrong, but what answer is less squeamish than the other choices. I'm not even through Act I but I am still intrigued.

 

The Bad: Glitches.  In Day 9, I couldn't end my day to advance the game because the prompt wouldn't appear.  After wasting an hour trying to figure it out, I searched online.  Turns out this is a Steam import, which makes sense given the interface of the game screens. It's screaming for mouse use. Looks like others had my problem but no solutions, so I loaded up previous saves to try and get passed my stuck part. I eventually got it to work after a couple attempts, but it wasted another hour. 

  My other gripe is the lack of tutorials. You get a brief explanation of what each icon on the screen is, but no explanation of what actually to do.  When I originally encountered the glitch, it wasn't obvious it occurred because there was no explanation as what to do on the map screen. I assumed I hadn't performed the necessary task. Turns out I had but the game didn't register it. I don't need to be hand-held through a game, but a little more explanation would've saved me time. It felt like there was an instruction manual for the phycial copy, but as I had the digital, I missed out on valuable intel.

 

Grade: To be determined. It's close to , but if I encounter another glitch, that will drop. 

 

Next Game: Glass Masquerade

 

- Also, great job by all the rookies on the first reviews.  I highly enjoyed reading a different approach to reviewing on some interesting games!

[Together_Comic]

Game 2: Trackmania Turbo

 

Starting Statistics 

Platinums 28

Completion Percentage 80.83

Games Played 43

Games Completed 33

Unearned Trophies 372

 

 

So I lied. Even though I teased Darksiders to be the next game, I couldn't seem to work up the motivation to get started with it. Opting to work on other games that I had going on. So I decided to give another game on my list a try instead.

 

This game is fun. The sales pitch for it doesn't sound to good, but essentially its an old school time attack racer game. Except you don't exactly race. Your goal is to hit a certain time for each track to unlock the next track repeat ad nauseam until you unlock all 200 tracks and successfully complete the game. There is no story to speak of, but the core gameplay loop of playing a track from 30s-1min30sec and trying to repeatedly best your time is really exciting. The pop off elation that you get for completing a trackmaster time or a gold time is immensely satisfying. What makes the game so satisfying and addicting is the ability to reset a track with one button press if you mess up or things go awry. The amount of times, I'd say to myself "just one more attempt" multiplied out so many times that I found myself 2 or 3 hours later still grinding the same track for the trackmaster. The game also has a really good indicator of whether you're on track to beat the appropriate time. When you start a track you can choose to have a "ghost" of a particular metal race against you. If you are ahead of the medal car, you are on pace to beat the time. Thankfully when you put the other car on the track, you can see it but not hit it. Allowing you to pass through the space if need be.

 

The controls are pretty good, for what its worth (I imagine worth more in a racing game). You have several different options for break and accelerate, and can steer with either the left analog or the d-pad whatever is most comfortable for you.  I found that after a long time with the game, holding the R2 for accelerate lead my hand to hurt, but switching to square for accelerate seemed to alleviate the issue.

 

I did also play around with the track creation a little bit.  It did enjoy building a track that gets one of the jumping trophies.  The interface however for me was kind of small and hard to read it also wasn't particularly friendly to find what you are looking for, but I imagine with a little practice it wouldn't be all that difficult to navigate.  To the games credit, it does offer several modes, beginner, normal, etc. which allow you to limit the amount of things that you're looking at all at once.  Beginner for example shows you the starting line, several different types of roads, a boost, obstacles, and a finish line.  While advanced gives you access to several different types of starting lines, aesthetics, terrain, different roads, obstacles, ramps, boosts, and a bunch of other menus that I really didn't explore. If you're interested in this part of the game, I guess I'd recommend it.  It looks robust and interesting, but I don't have a lot to compare it to as its really not my thing.

 

The game is difficult, but fair. Very rarely did I get a gold on my first run through, and had to repeat each track several several times in order to get the medal, even more for the couple of trackmasters that I got. The platinum trophy requires a gold on all 200 tracks of the campaign, and 50 trackmasters. The golds so far (I've only played the easiest cup as of now) seem manageable not requiring more than a few attempts apiece. The trackmasters are another story. Probably 8 of the 9 hours I've played have been trackmaster attempts and I have 3. This game is for sure going to be a grind for the platinum.

 

The game looks good, there are no glaring technical issues though I did momentarily get a framerate drop that caused a stutter. It didn't hurt anything, but it would really be annoying if I was in the middle of a good attempt. The music is nothing to write home about so far, but it isn't awful either. I worry that I'll get tired of it in the hours grinding up the golds and trackmasters, but If that happens I guess I could pull up my on music playlist and listen to that.

 

Overall if your someone that enjoys a bit of a difficulty grind and likes racers this game is fun and rewarding to play. However, if you're really not all that into that style of game, there isn't a lot else here. In that case, you may want to skip it.

 

All of that being said, here is how I'd grade the report card.

 

Story: N/A

Gameplay: A

Visual Appeal: C

Audio Appeal: C

Technical Quality: B

Trophy List: C

Overall: B-

 

Finishing Statistics 

Platinums 28

Completion Percentage 79.95

Games Played 44

Games Completed 33

Unearned Trophies 382

Trophies Obtained 21/49

Total Play Time 9 Hours

 

[Arctic Cress]

On 7/5/2019 at 0:59 AM, RuneEyesDragon said:

I'm surprised you haven't platinumed Criminal Girls 1 and 2 yet, since it's the same thing only with more R-rated material.

I don't own either of those games, and I'm not really interested in buying either of them at this point.

[RuneEyesDragon]

Have to cut this short as I have to dress for church soon(my parents made me go on Saturday instead of Sunday because my dad's new church decided to do its mass on Sunday morning like everyone else), so here the final update for Game #2!

 

Game #2 - Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance

 

New Completion: 89.90% (-1.52%)

# of Trophies That Fought the Good Fight: 17

# of Unearned Trophies Still Imprisoned by Void Dark: 33

# of Hours Played: 8.5? (I don't know the number played today because I forgot to time myself )

 

My Game Review: 

If Disgaea 1 Complete represents the Alpha of Disgaea, then this game represents the Omega, the latest iteration of the combat mechanics that made Disgaea so insanely complex. I didn't repurchase the DLC that lets you recruit characters from past games, but including them there are tons of special stoy-related characters, each one with a powerful Overload that can wreck havoc on the field. And I hadn't even reached Chapter 10 and unlocked Usalia's Overload yet, which is a full-screen nuke! A very fun game.

 

The Struggle:

So how did I do? Well, I watched a person get 100% trophies in six hours and if he can do it, so can I. I already got 17 trophies - the ones I got for today were jumping 1000 times in the home base, passing a bill by force(the one to open up the secret battle training levels), and a couple more story related trophies. Just entered Chapter 8 now. But I think it's doable.

 

My Rating for the Game: 5/5

My Rating for the Trophy List: 4/5

 

Hardest Trophy Left to Obtain: Defeating the penultimate super-boss in the post-game(and reaching him!)
Easiest Trophy Left to Obtain: The next story trophy

 

Tomorrow begins the bulk of the event for me, the Kingdom Hearts marathon.

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #2 - Onechanabra Z2: Chaos - Final Impressions

 

 

Time played: 6h30m

Tropheis earned: 10/44

 

 

Well... this one is quite something. I wonder, if the first game was popular at all, as I'm having a bit of a difficult time understanding why they made a second one to be honest.

 

Everything in this game looks like it's a PS2 game, except for the 4 main characters and the final boss. Suffice to say that that gives a really weird contrast when playing the game. The enemy design is lackluster and downright ugly, a lot of which either look like zombies or army men (yes those grey or green ones out of plastic, they just aren't as stiff in the game). The bosses you end up fighting over and over again, except maybe for two of them. The levels are fairly linear, but unfortunately lock you into an arena fight every new area. One of my biggest gripes is that there are some enemies, that are extreme damage sponges. To the point whre you fight a trash mob for literally a minute or two, if you're just using regular attacks.

 

With the bad out of the way, let's get to the "sort of " good. The combat is fast-paced and fun for the most part. You have your normal and heavy attacks, tons of combos, a ranged attack, and the gimmick that you can swap between 4 different characters while fighting. Each character has their indivudual health bars and can combo with another character. There are special tattacks for each and each of them can power up, losing most of their clothes in the process. You can also call all 3 other characters to help out for a short period of time and mow through enemy hordes.

 

There's also a shop where you can buy items and weapons and combos. As for customiztion, there is seemingly a lot, but those items need to be unlocked through playing the game. Among the unlocks there is also the higher difficulties. Those unlock one at a time, and after finishing the game on medium I now only have hard available. There's two more after that and all of them need to be completed for the plat. Fun times ahead, because the game on normal is already somehwat of a pain  once you reach the final third of the game.

 

Oh yeah, and for those wondering... the story is utter trash. Who would've guessed, right? The jiggly bits seem to have had lots of attention  during the development though, so there's that.

 

It's still a , but it doesn't come close to any of the other games of the genre.

Edited July 7, 2019 by voodoo_eyes

[AsaraBaenre]

Game #2: GWENT - The Witcher Card Game

 

 

Time Played: 4 hr 45 min

Trophies Earned: 9/51 (12%)

Current Completion: 23.70% (+0.86%)

 

My oh my has GWENT changed a lot. From three lanes down to two, every card seeming to have some ability or some strategy to it. I enjoyed the game and will be coming back to it during times when I only have a few minutes to play. There were a couple of things that I wasn't enjoying with the game, and yes, like was mentioned before I started playing, the pay-to-win-ness of the game definitely showed its face even in the short time I played. However, the issue with premium cards that was discussed was mentioned as being Pay-to-Plat doesn't seem to be an actual issue (or at least not 100% Pay to Plat) - you can indeed craft premium cards by the looks of things (I didn't craft one to be sure, but I did look and the option to do so is there, albeit slightly hard to find. You have to search by ownership - not owned, then premium cards - premium only, and then you're given the option to craft them as normal; it also told me there was a way to upgrade to premium cards but I haven't been able to find that yet).

 

The daily quest system has always been a love hate relationship with me in games because A) I love getting rewards daily and knowing that there's a daily influx of the finite resources used for things like crafting carts, etc; and B ) I hate the feeling that I need to come back every single day because something is unfinished. There's a ton of different daily options here which keeps things open for a daily play though.

 

And finally, the reward/progression system is something I really like. You have quests/mini achievements that aren't tied to trophies that reward you with little feather icons. You can get these in other ways too, such as daily quests and I THINK also from winning matches. These little feathers are used on a reward map that almost looks like an RPG skill progression system (I'm looking at you Final Fantasy X) that gives you rewards and options on a huge branching tree. It looks like each "season" of competitive play comes with its own reward tree as well, offering cards, cosmetics, and resources.

 

All in all, considering I wasn't expecting a huge amount from this free to play title, I was pretty impressed and will definitely be back. It IS a Free-to-Play Plat though meaning it will take some time if you aren't paying real currency. For me, 6/10. Lower score than Beholder but still fun! 

 

Next up is going to be Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (Game of the Year Edition).

 

[AsaraBaenre]

Game 3 Preview: Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (Game of the Year Edition) (July 7th - July 9th)

 

Game Stats:

92,817 Game Owners; 18,655 (21.1%) Platinum Achievers; 38% Average Completion; 2,280 (2.46%) 100% Achievers
75 Trophies (1/1/17/56)

DLC #1: Lord of the Hunt (13)

DLC #2: The Bright Lord (3, 7)  

 

Playstation Store Description

Fight through Mordor and uncover the truth of the spirit that compels you, discover the origins of the Rings of Power, build your legend and ultimately confront the evil of Sauron in this new chronicle of Middle-earth.

 

I've watched my boyfriend play a bit of this game on PC so I'm really looking forward to playing it myself! It's an open world action-adventure game set in Middle Earth, about a ranger who bonds with a wraith and must go out to kick some orcish butt and I'm so ready to dive into the Nemesis system and make some orcish enemies!  

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #3 - Zombi - Preview

 

 

ANother one I don't know too much about. It was originally on the WiiU of all things. Didn't know it existed until it was out on Ps4 though. I'm just venturing a guess here, but I beleive this is a survival horror game with zombies in it. Gameplay-wise, I'm expecting, some crafting, few weapons and lots of enemies, with the occasional cheap death sprinked in.between,

 

Horror games are among my favourite genre, however I tend to enjoy the psychological horror kind (like Layers of Fear) more, although i still like Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Dead Island games a lot as well. So this should be kind of a win, right?

[dmland12]

 

Game #1: Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition

Trophies: 10/38 (20%)

Completion: 95.68% (-0.60%)

 

Sunless Sea is a open-ended roguelike survival game set in a strange, fantastical underground sea.  It's the late 1800's and London has apparently been carried off by bats.  Now it's underground and known as Fallen London.  You play as a sea captain (or zee captain, as the game keeps insisting on replacing s with z as well as other minor changes) and right at the start you get to choose what your ambition is (Fulfillment, Wealth, Immortality, etc).  This will set your win condition.  There's no main story as far as I can tell, just lots of little side quests or people (or often enough much more bizarre creatures) looking for things.  A lot of the game involves sailing slowly from island to island: exploring, finding side quests, and trying not to run out of fuel or supplies or go mad from terror.

 

Survival Aspects

You'll need fuel to keep sailing.  And supplies to keep your crew fed (although, cannibalism is an option...).  You'll also need a crew...  That's fairly straightforward, but one other interesting aspect of the game is Terror.  Just sailing around away from port will make your terror increase slowly and there are plenty of actions and things that can happen that can also increase or decrease it.  If it starts getting very high, bad things happen.  Crew members can resort to murder, or try to jump off the ship in the middle of the ocean never to be seen again.  I haven't yet gotten it to the maximum at sea (100), but apparently it will trigger a mutiny, which could end in your death depending on your luck.

 

It's possible to get in a bind, if you're not careful with your money.  But, like most survival games, it's more difficult at the start, when you have fewer resources and don't really know what you're doing.  Once you get the hang of the game, and figure out how to get a steady income and how to manage the risks, it becomes something that can kill you more out of carelessness than anything else.

 

Combat

There are dangers at sea that can kill you more directly: sea creatures and hostile ships.  Thankfully, I haven't come across anything that was very aggressive, so when I took on more than I bargained for I was able to run away successfully.  Provided you've decided to fight something that you can kill without being killed first, the combat is rather straightforward.  For most of the creatures, just stay back and shoot them.  They'll attack by ramming you, so there's not much danger as long as you can keep your distance.  For ships and the few creatures that can attack at range, then it's a matter of whether you can deal more damage quickly enough.  Most don't fire as often as you can, and in general I didn't find the combat to be too much of a threat, as long as I was ready to run away if things started looking bad.

 

Decisions

As I sailed from port to port there were often things to do.  Many islands had their own storylines.  I'd need to try to work with some faction or the other, or find something and bring it back to open up more options.  There's sometimes a lot of reading involved!  Generally, trying to follow these storylines would pay off.  And a lot of the time you're given at least two or three different options on how to proceed.  Sometimes they'll be skill based (you can see your chance of success beforehand based on the skill level you have).  Sometimes you'll need a particular item or person with you.  A lot of times, even if you fail a skill check things will still work out OK, although not always.  In the game I'm playing, there's one island that is basically dead now because my choices didn't work out.  Whoops.  I guess it happens.  There's two others that are also in bad shape, although I don't think that was actually my fault.  ?

 

Roguelike

Fortunately (or unfortunately), I didn't die yet, so I can't tell you what happens when you die in the game.  All I can say is that the game's not that difficult to stay alive in provided you can get a handle on the survival part early enough and you're willing to be a coward in combat if need be.

 

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed the game, although I'd hesitate to recommend it because of it's pace.  It's very slow sailing around.  There's no fast travel and the map is kind of large.  There's also a lot of reading.  I do think the pace fits the game, but I'm sure it's not for everyone.

 

As I did in previous KYC, I'll leave a video showing some of the gameplay in case anyone is interested.  As you can see, it's a slow game.

 

Edited July 7, 2019 by dmland12

[DamagingRob]

Hollow Knight, Final Review:

 

Number of deaths? Uhhhh... let's not talk about that. Game is pretty tough. Both from combat and platforming sections. So yeah, it's been a bit of a struggle for me. And I'm not even to the stuff that makes it an Ultra Rare Plat. It's a lot of fun, though, and I'll probably go back to it. 

 

So, umm, new stuff. Or stuff I didn't mention in the first review for whatever reason. There is a fast travel system. A big beetle (I think?) can transport you to different points of the map. The map itself was somewhat hard to figure out, and I kept getting lost. Wish I'd known about the skill you could equip that shows you on the map a lot sooner. :/ 

 

Like most metroidvanias you'll get different skills/items as you progress, which then allow you to explore further. One example is a ground smash ability, that lets you break through weak floors. You'll encounter a lot of different types of enemies, too. 

 

Many of them are insects. But there are many different varieties. Some fly, some are huge and will do double the damage if they hit you, some fire projectiles, and some are kamikaze fuckers who will try to blow you up. Then there are jellyfish enemies in one section. All are easy enough to  deal with or avoid once you know how. But between them and spikes, it never has felt too easy. 

 

Music, graphics, and all that are fine. Most things look bleak and creepy and fit the vibe. And I don't know how long it is. But it's going to take me a lot longer than the minimum 12 hours the guide says. Already close to or at 20. Probably a for me. 

 

Time played: ~20 hours

Trophy progress: 19/35 for 32% and a B rank.

Completion Percentage: -.09%

[dizzyshadow]

Game 1: Donut County

 

Boy is this game short, 2 hours and I've completed the whole game, when the game came out last year it good reviews and when i saw it in a recent sale i thought it would be a good one to pick up and try out, but i have to be honest i'm really not sure where the good reviews come from.

 

The story centres around a raccoon who has control of a hole which he is using to swallow things and send them underground, the game play is basically move the hole around the level to make objects fall through it, the move objects you swallow the bigger the hole gets which then opens up new objects that you can swallow, which you repeat until you've got rid of everything on the level. There are very occasional puzzles but nothing to challenging and there is a story but it doesn't really amount to much. 

 

So unfortunately the game is nothing more than a lighthearted bit of fun that doesn't really hold the interest for long, So really nothing more than an easy plat as far as i'm concerned.

 

Playtime 2-3 Hours

Rating: 

Trophies : 21/21

Completion: Forgot to record it

 

Next Up : Hollow Knight

[SixyLove]

Update 007

Gravity Rush Remastered

Playtime: 12 hours

Trophies Earned: 45/64 69%

 

I'm still having a very fun time with Gravity Rush. Today I encountered a few very strong enemies that could actually kill me. I learned what happens when you die, so I taught the jerks who killed me what death was like. I took them awhile to learn the whole dying thing but I was eventually able to beat it into them.

 

I also beat up an enemy that dropped a lot of gems, but I glitched through a wall and got stuck inside. It took me a very long time to figure out I was able to grab the gems through the wall/floor/ceiling. I couldn't glitch my way out but fortunately I was able to get out by ending the mission I was on.

 

When I was having a water break, I saw a really big moth on one of the kitchen cabinets. It's presence was really scary so I captured it in a container (I made sure to leave space for air) and put it outside. It sat outside my front door for a few hours but it's gone now.

 

Zombi Thoughts

I got this game a little bit after I bought my Wii U around launch. I had a lot of terrified fun with the game. I played the Wii U version so much that I memorized all the enemy placements and the locations of good items. The game is more of a scary zombie game then a shoot all the zombies game. Any random zombie can kill you if you're not careful. Ammo is vey rare; aim for the head and don't miss.

 

I played the PS4 version a little because it was free on PS Plus a while back. I never finished it because I got too scared to finish the game, despite beating the Wii U version a myriad of times. I will platinum this game someday; I just need to work up the courage.

Spoiler

Thankfully there are no moth based zombies in the game.

 

[PerryToxteth]

8 hours ago, dmland12 said:

You play as a sea captain (or zee captain, as the game keeps insisting on replacing s with z as well as other minor changes) and right at the start you get to choose what your ambition is (Fulfillment, Wealth, Immortality, etc).  

 

 

"Protection from what? Zee Germans?!?"

 

Sorry, couldn't resist.   From one of my favorite movies. 

 

- Thanks for posting the gameplay video. It sounded like an interesting game from your review, but yeah, you're right, there's not much going on game-wise. I don't mind a slow burn every once in awhile, though. I might check it out.